Gaughan, 75, has been a member of the Jersey City City Council for 20 years, longer than anyone else, according to City Clerk Robert Byrne. But after five terms, Gaughan is hanging up his hat on June 30.

Tonight is his last council meeting, and he hopes it’s a short one.

“Late nights . . . have been more and more frequent, with a lot of rhetoric that we could have done without,” he said yesterday in his office at the Brennan Courthouse. Gaughan’s day job is chief of staff to Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise.

Gaughan, an ally of outgoing Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy, picked a good year to retire from the nine-member council. Not only did Healy lose his bid for re-election, but Healy’s entire council slate was voted down, including Healy’s pick to succeed Gaughan, the Rev. Mario Gonzalez.

Gaughan said he opted to step down long before Healy picked his council slate.

“It was getting too political,” he said. “There were too many people who were in it for the wrong reason.”

A former boxer, Gaughan owns Houghton Funeral Home, at Summit Avenue and Lincoln Street. He joined the council in 1993, running with former Mayor Bret Schundler. He was one of two funeral home directors running for the council that year.

Asked to name some of his accomplishments over the past two decades, Gaughan cited bringing the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail to the Heights; converting a former bank at Kennedy Boulevard and Thorne Street into a community center; assisting in the creation of three affordable-housing developments in the Heights; and the 100 Steps project, which is slated for completion this fall after being in the works for Gaughan’s entire 20 years on the council.

The rebuilt 100 Steps will connect the Palisades cliffs from Franklin Street and Mountain Road to a landing adjacent to the Cliffs Lofts residence on Paterson Plank Road.

Gaughan’s five terms weren’t all smooth.

He was forced to apologize in 2004 when he called homosexuality “an illness you’re born with.” And he had some notable battles with the late Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham, who defeated DeGise, Gaughan’s friend and ally, in the 2001 mayor’s race.

He was also criticized heavily at times for drawing two public salaries. He earns about $35,000 annually as councilman and is paid around $126,000 for his job as county chief of staff.

He insists his two public roles helped Jersey City residents.

Byrne said he estimates the two have sat through as many as 900 council meetings together.

“I’ll miss him being seated to my right at every caucus,” the clerk said. “We’re going to be friends for life, that’s for sure.”